A meeting between Anders Breivik and an English anti-Islamic militant calling himself ‘Richard the Lionheart’ was outlined in court yesterday.

Nine years before his killing spree left 77 dead, the Norwegian said he was sitting in a London cafe with members of an extremist group called Knights Templar, to plot ‘how to seize power in Western Europe’.

As well as ‘Richard the Lionheart’, Breivik was also ‘ordained’ by the group and given the name of the 12th-century Norwegian king, Sigurd ‘the Crusader’.

Defiant: Breivik, for a third day running, pumped his fist out in front of him as he took to the stand to answer questions

Under cross-examination on the third
day of his trial yesterday, the right-wing extremist initially refused
to discuss meetings in Liberia and London in April and May 2002 as he
joined a network of ‘like-minded’ militant anti-Muslim nationalists.

But after repeated questioning by
prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh, who told him she was trying to shed doubt on
the network’s existence, he conceded he had travelled to Africa and
London ten years ago to help set up his Knights Templar (KT) movement.

Share this article

Share

For the first time Breivik, 33,
appeared rattled as it emerged he left Oslo on April 17, 2002, to fly to
the Ivory Coast before entering Liberia, posing as an aid worker.
Breivik said that once there he met an exiled Serbian ‘war hero’, but
refused to identify the man.

Breivik became agitated and claimed
Norwegian police had not been clever enough to uncover the KT movement’s
members. He said: ‘Exactly what is it you’re getting at? Are you trying
to sow doubt over whether the KT network exists? It does.’

Fearless: Mass killer Anders Breivik, pictured with his lawyer Geir Lippestad, told the court if he had feared death he would never have undertaken his 'operation'

Fantasist: Anders Breivik, seen with lawyer Geir Lippestad, was told by prosecutors that his Knights Templar organisation didn't exist as he imagined

Hard job, but somebody has to do it: The stress of defending mass killer Anders Breivik shows on his face as he talks to a member of his team in the Oslo court

The court heard that Breivik flew to
London in late April 2002 where he attended a founding session of the KT
movement but he refused to give exact details of his co-conspirators.

As images of Breivik’s 1,800-page
manifesto were flashed on to screens, the court heard that he met three
other founding members of the Knights Templar during his London visit.
At 23, he was the youngest member of the group.

World watches: Journalists work at the pressroom as defendant Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik is led into court for the third day of his trial

There were two Englishmen – including
his ‘mentor’, Richard the Lionheart – and a French nationalist at the
founding meeting. Breivik told the court: ‘It is not in my interest here
to discuss what went on.

What I will say is that Richard was responsible for calling the meeting.’
In his manifesto, Breivik said: ‘It was basically a long-term plan on how to seize power in Western Europe.’

He told the court that the people he
had met in London had ‘great integrity’ and how his codename of
‘Crusader’ was taken from Sigurd Magnusson, a 12th-century Viking king.

Asked if he felt he had met some
‘like-minded friends’ in London, he said: ‘I felt I was a foot soldier
associated with the others. Now I feel I have managed to do what I
wanted to do.’

Breivik also said he should face the death penalty – describing the 21 years he faces in prison as ‘pathetic’.

When asked if he thought Norway should introduce the death penalty, he replied: ‘It would be the right thing.’